


To live for

by Servena



Category: Marco Polo (TV)
Genre: Admiration, Battle, Blood and Violence, Canon-Typical Violence, F/M, Fighting, Kinship, Rescue, War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-24
Updated: 2018-08-24
Packaged: 2019-07-04 16:49:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15845367
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Servena/pseuds/Servena
Summary: He had never seen her fight before. – Well, that wasn’t entirely true.





	To live for

He had never seen her fight before.

Well, that wasn’t entirely true. He had seen her wrestle (and defeat) opponents twice her size on quite a few occasions, and he had watched her train her swordplay, even sparred against her himself a few times (but not as many times as he would have liked).

But this was different.

The noise was overwhelming. The screaming of horses mixed with the shouts of warriors in excitement or fear or pain, swords met swords with metal sound, arrows filled the skies with a low hum and the booming of the trebuchets shook the ground. Flickering light was cast over moving bodies and ones that would never stir again by the burning rooftops behind the broken city wall. It smelled of smoke and blood.

He tried not to lose sight of her amidst the chaos, but it was almost impossible. She was no longer on horseback, whether by choice or whether it had been killed under her he did not know, and while she was a formidable warrior, she was not exactly tall. He had abandoned his own horse when he had switched from bow to sword, also in the hope that it might live to see another day. Now they were moving on foot through enemy lines, and as much as they wanted to stay together, a warrior not focused on his enemy first would soon be a dead warrior.

Occasional he could see her flying braids or the blinking of her sword in the firelight through a gap in the frenzy. There was blood on her face and on her armor and in her hair, but he was pretty sure none of it belonged to her. In training she had been elegant, a lithe and deadly figure moving as one with her blade. But only now could he truly see the violence that had been hidden beneath the surface, as she struggled against her enemies shouting and swearing, bearing her teeth and hacking at limbs, spraying blood from the edge of her sword when it came down once again with deadly force.

Only now did he truly understand how much she was like him.

With no woman before could he share this feeling, this terrible mixture of exhilaration and rage, feeling so alive while death was all around him. She could never be impressed with tales of this day, for she would know what it had cost them.

The arrow hummed past him, missing his right ear by mere inches and killing an enemy behind him that had just raised his sword. He turned around just to see the surprised look on his face and the blood flowing out of his mouth before he collapsed to the ground, never to rise again.

“Eyes everywhere!” she called over to him and lifted the bow that fired the shot. He raised a hand in wordless thanks before directing his attention back to the opponents around him.

He could not fall today. There was too much left to live for.


End file.
